Wireless Markup Languages

In this article, Paul Wallace outlines the current crop of markup languages that are used for developing i-mode content. He also presents ideas for using simple text and code editors for creating i-mode pages.

This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Compact HTML

Compact HyperText Markup Language (cHTML) is a markup language designed to
create Web pages viewable by portable telephone and portable information
terminals like PDAs. It was developed by Access, NEC, SONY, Fujitsu, and
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., and was proposed to the W3C in 1998.

The cHTML language is a subset HTML version 2.0, 3.2, and 4.0. Since it is
based on HTML, developing content for cHTML is very similar to developing for
HTML. Compact HTML was designed explicitly for mobile phones and other small
appliances that have the following characteristics:

Small memory size

Low power CPU

Reduced display size

Restricted color display

Limited fonts and text size

Restricted input method

In order to accommodate these restricted characteristics, cHTML was designed
to be:

Based on W3C Recommendations

Compact HTML is a subset of HTML, so it is flexible and portable, and
there is a large body of developers who can easily jump in and start building
applications immediately.

Viewable on a small screen

Compact HTML takes into account that screen sizes are small and
variable; and often limited in the style, size, and type of fonts that are
available.

Usable on a mobile handset

Compact HTML is designed to be used on a device with limited
navigation, including four primary keys: Cursor Forward, Cursor Backward,
Select, and Back/Stop.